After tripping over boxes of old exams at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Rhode Island for the umpteenth time, clinical faculty members Kelly Matson and Jayne Pawasauskas decided there had to be a better system.

Delivering student services as important as tutoring, disability assistance, and advising is especially vital at LDS Business College, an open-enrollment school whose student body often faces hardships.

Not so long ago, students at LDS Business College in Salt Lake City whose semester grade-point averages fell below a certain level were placed on academic probation. But it did very little to get them the help they needed.

Like virtually every other administrative unit in higher education, the Information Technology Division at Valdosta State University in Georgia employed students to supplement the efforts of full-time staff.

Just as sales in the publishing industry have been declining, the University of Southern Indiana (USI) Campus Store, in Evansville, has seen sales fall an average of 10 percent per year the last few years.

The explosion of technological devices, software, and apps has been undeniably beneficial to higher education, but there is at least one group on which it has placed quite a burden: those charged with keeping all of that technology running smoothly.

Just when Mona Aldana-Ramirez thought she had all the answers, they kept changing the questions. The director of retention services at San Antonio College had to spearhead the implementation of a new enrollment program while fielding thousands of student requests for clarification.

In my experience as president of a university where liberal arts and professional programs serve as complements, I have found that engaging students—both before they arrive on campus, and while they are completing their studies—is vital to creating the overall college experience that students are

Kathleen McCartney was inaugurated as the 11th president of Smith College (Mass.) on Oct. 19. She follows President Carol Christ, who resigned in June. McCartney had previously served as dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

From the perspective of a retired university president, the expressions of concern from most of America’s higher education leaders about President Obama’s proposed “Plan to Make College More Affordable” are a lot like looking a gift horse in the mouth.